If you were fortunate enough to be born between 1977 and 1983, then you know how awesome it is to be an Xennial, the middle child stuck between Generation X and Millennials.
What is an Xennial?
Xennials are a micro-generation identified as people with analog childhoods who were coming of age during the emergence of the Digital Revolution.
Xennials are an interesting and cosmic amalgamation of Gen X and Millennial.
People born in the late 70s and early 80s were so special that they had to create a whole new generation for us.
And that's freaking badass.
Why Are Xennials So Cool?
Xennials are a blessed generation because we enjoyed the Gen X childhood, scraping our knees, getting hurt roughhousing with other kids, skateboarding, drinking hose water, listening to grunge and hard rock music, and jumping our bikes off ramps and nearly killing ourselves.
Yes, some girls did these things too, it wasn't just boys.
While we were still young and impressionable, we experienced the dawn of the Digital Age, the launch of the internet (made newly available to the public), and the hyper-evolution of electronics, which millennials are adequately accustomed to.
But, even though Xennials are Millennials in some form, there's a difference.
Millennials, as children, were becoming consciously aware of their surroundings as the digital world was replacing the analog world.
Unfortunately, many of the Millennials never knew a childhood without internet games, advanced computer software and mind-numbing electronics.
Xennials know what the world was like before the robots took over.
Because of this unique exposure to both the analog and digital worlds as children who were becoming young adults, the Xennial embraces the laidback badassery of Gen X while simultaneously celebrating the fast-paced, futuristic, high-tech intelligence of the Millennial generation.
Corporations who are headed by young Boomers or aging Gen Xers are robustly aware of the uniqueness of Xennials, and will often hunt them down. (Uh, to hire them, not kill them.)
Xennials make fantastic leaders, managers and corporate executives because they have the toughness of Gen X and the tech-savviness of the Millennials.
Moreover, because Xennials are fierce alien hybrids of both generations, they can effectively communicate with older Gen X members of the team as well as younger Millennials.
Xennials are an asset to the company.
The Xennial understands both Gen X and the Millennials because they are both.
If you're a rare and unique Xennial, you should feel lucky and happy that the cosmic roll of the dice spawned you between two worlds.
No generation before or after will ever boast the same level of awesomeness as the Xennial.
Standing here today, as a man in his early 40s, I can honestly say that I am eternally grateful that I came into this world when I did.
I wouldn't change it for anything.
Now let's talk about Y2K for a minute.
Y2K and The New Millennium
One of my fondest memories was when the world was preparing to shed the cocoon of the 20th Century and emerge as a beautiful butterfly into the new millennium.
I was a teenager nearing the end of high school in the year 1999.
It was epic.
As panic gripped the nations, the grown-ups braced themselves for what they believed was the end of the world.
Y2K would usher in the apocalypse... or so they thought.
Being a teenager in 1999 was the most exciting thing ever for me. I could feel the electricity in the air as the great calendars of the ages sounded off their trumpets to welcome a new era.
It was spectacular.
I was a poet, a dreamer, a young rebel with his whole life in front of him.
On New Year's Eve in 1999, as we drank cheap beer under the eerie serenity of the moon and the sparkling luminosity of the city, my friends and I toasted to the end of the world.
Then it dawned on us; maybe the end of the world really was coming. Maybe this would be our last night sharing in carefree teenage revelry. Maybe tonight would be the universe's last memory before it sunk into eternal oblivion.
With every twitch of its hand, the melancholy clock echoed its uproarious and sinister tick.
The anticipation was glorious.
But alas, to the dismay of the doomsayers, the world kept on turning.
But I was left with an experience I would never forget.
It was a feeling that many Xennials shared and admired.
I was becoming an adult at the same time civilization itself celebrated one of its most significant birthdays; a new millennium.
Wow!
In Conclusion
Being an Xennial is one of the greatest feelings ever. We get to embrace the badassery of Gen X and the tech-savviness of the Millennial generation, without being imposters or posers.
We are Gen X, and we are Millennials, wrapped into one amazing generation.
We are the Xennials, the greatest generation time has ever known.
If you are an Xennial, own that shit and be proud!
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